The project of filling king crab pots is designed to help restore long-depressed king crab stocks. It is said that the a team of scientists and research biologists hatched the tiny king crab clinging to tufts of artificial seaweed in conical shaped tanks in the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery in Seward. It is told that the project is a unique partnership between the crab industry, coastal communities, Native groups, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS) and the Alaska Sea Grant college program.
Scientists said that the project is focusing its research on eventually rehabilitating stocks of Kodiak red king crab and Pribilof Islands blue king crab, but the technology and research also can be used to help restore king crab populations in Kachemak Bay, Southeast Alaska or anywhere else in the state. Biologists were successful in spawning both stocks of crab this year, producing 40,000 juveniles or 10 percent of the hatched larvae, compared to only 1 per cent in 2007.
It si informed that the project scientists are engaged in several projects that will increase the information available to state and federal researchers and the resource agencies that manage Alaska’s important king crab stocks. According to AKCRRAB also plans to conduct habitat studies around the Pribilofs and Kodiak to determine the location of preferred habitats in the two regions. AKCRRAB continue with genetic research and gather other information that should significantly improve the tools available to resource agencies to effectively manage the king crab resources of Alaska.
